From Dust till Dawn
by RevenantOmega
Summary: The bombs… The bombs rained from the sky. Vytel lay in ruins. The kingdoms have fallen. Tribes arise from the dust, eager to start again. But the world is unforgiving. Thirty years have passed since the bombs dropped. The students of Beacon have taken refuge in a world that blames them. They will fight, they will survive. OC. Alternate timeline.


Where to start

**(If you havent read my other fanfiction titled BLAC some of this will make little sense, I recommend reading BLAC first but what the heck do what you want)**

A dark figure dashed through the chaos. Books scattered. Skeletons of a former life, dead. Their bones cracked as the figure walked amongst their scattered remains. Like them she had died long ago. She turned a corner. An all too familiar corridor, she spent most of her youth here. She walked quietly past. A room, old dusty memories. She came here to remember what she had lost. Her hand found its way to the door knob. The rusted metal chaffed her hands as she turned its cold embrace. The room was cold. Empty bottles lay strewn across the floor. Cans of tinned food. Piled up against the wall. Her stash of water still untouched.

'_The perks of living in a red zone' _she thought to herself

In her hand, fresh batteries to power the derelict laptop that sat dusty on work table.

"Just one last time." She bit down the tears as they formed in her eyes

She slowly walked.

With each step her heart pounded a million beats.

She stopped.

Her body shook and she let the tears that she had tried so long to hide, flow free.

Something in the back of her head told her to let it go.

But her heart edged her on.

She took a seat. She used her weapon to prop the back of the computer open.

She placed the batteries within. The laptop powered up.

Her eyes waited patiently but her heart thrashed against her chest.

The desktop flicked on, four recorded messages lay untouched by her hand, unwatched by her eyes.

She hesitantly clicked the first one, the video message began to play, she turned up the volume and waited.

The video started with hesitation but then a pair of eyes peaked playfully from the bottom corner

"Peak a Boo." A mans voice echoed, she laughed at the antics

"Hey, where to start. I know I'm terrible at these, and you have told me dozens of times to stop… but I love the look on your face when you see them. It makes me laugh. The way you look at me afterwards." She paused the film then cried, all this time had passed, and she still loved him. She resumed the video.

"You're embarrassed cheeks as everyone laughs at me. It never mattered to me, I made them for you, not for them." He laughed "We used to say they were just jealous." He winked "They definitely were... Well the guys were. I never understood why you liked me." he began to cry. Her breath caught in her throat, drying out her joy. "I was such a problem. I mean you tutored me. You put up with me. You fought for me. You were always there for me…" His tortured heart broke and he meltdown. "And that's why its so hard. I can't believe you're gone. I can't believe you died. I should have been there. I should have been stronger." He wiped his eyes dry "I should have been there, when you were killed." Gun fire is heard. His face changed from sad to one of determination "Anyone who sees these. It was not us. Beacon did not drop the bombs. We are under siege. Ozpin has been killed. Glynda has taken command of the Remnants of Light. If you are one of us. A student who has been lost. We are at the edge of where it all began." He stood up. His tattered clothes and armor hung of him loosely. "This is captain Hale signing off. We will be coming back here once every week to check for survivors. If you find this wait for us." The message stopped. The video closed and she opened the next one.

"Commanders log number one." The face she had remembered had changed more gritty and war torn. His hair had grown out covering his eyes. Stubble grew from the sides of his face. "You probably didn't see the first message but. I guess it's my way of saying I still think about you. Every day of every minute… I guess I just wanted to catch you up on some things that have happened. I know you would punch me if I didn't tell you. So… Its usually not this awkward but I just remembered the way you smiled as I told you things." His lips curled into a perfect affectionate smile "Um I'll start with the good. Amber is pregnant we are all really excited for the baby. She was thinking of naming the baby after you. Edward finally brokered peace with Weiss, I mean bout time. Jason and Angus took down a Nevermore by themselves. I... I got a new weapon." He lifted a double barrel shotgun with two large blades extending from either side of the barrel "That brings me to the bad news. Something' been happening to us. Our abilities have been going haywire we have been out of control. We lost Uncle Derek when he turned. He couldn't turn back and he transformed... further. He turned into a monster and ran, before we could restrain him." The warrior's lips quivered "I'm scared, I don't want to turn into what he did. The kids were terrified of him, I couldn't imagine what it was like. Yang and Velvet went missing." He dragged his hands through his hair revealing a fresh wound going through his eyebrow "We are hopeful... but It doesn't look good. At the scene where they were last spotted, their was a small pool of blood, and lots of bodies. They were on patrol with Russell and Sky. We found the two of them barely clinging to life. Funny thing team CRDL are the good guys now, never saw it coming. Ozpin would have been proud of them. I know all of us are." His smile returned "Hell. I haven't smiled like that in a long time. I really miss you. This is Commander Hale signing off." She took in a deep breath, she rubbed her face. She found it hard to continue. She played the second last message

"Colonel's log numero dos." The man she once knew had grown up it made her smile. He had cut his hair short but kept a carefully trimmed beard. But his facial expression didn't reflect how she wanted him to be "Life is different without you. I know its been twenty years since you died but I still think about you, which makes this difficult to say. Weiss and I. I tried to forget you to move on but Weiss told me something today that made me regret it all. Weiss is pregnant, its not confirmed but Lavender says its a girl. I was happy at first but it should have been you. I know that sounds awful and you would kill me if I said this to you in person. But you're gone and I need to accept that. I just can't live on knowing I betrayed you." She gasped, it had only occurred to her of the shotgun in his hand. He pressed it underneath his chin and closed eyes "I'm so sorry Weiss. I'm so sorry Blake, I betrayed you!" He began to pant heavily his breath trembled. She wanted to shut it off. She wanted to scream but she watched, her eyes plastered to the horror on the screen

"AHHHHHHH!" He screamed thrusting the shotgun in the air shooting the ceiling with both shots "I can't do it this way. But I can do it another way." She turned away. Sickly snapping noises and a scream of pure agony. She looked back towards the screen. He stood in the middle of the room. His bones snapped being compressed by the layers of muscle that built over them. He plunged the nails of his fingers deep within the flesh of his eyes, tearing them out. Being replaced by luminescent purple copies. He looked at his hand, claws tore from the skin at his knuckles growing out from his fingers. The slow anguish in his face was reflected by the grim sight. His full length claws grew from wrists, his now useless fingers falling limply to the floor. His teeth began to fall out, being replaced by large fangs that had grown much larger than when she had last seen him. But it didn't stop like it was supposed to. His skin tore removing dark black fur. His ears grew larger and longer, becoming wolf ears. His jaw expanded outwards becoming a long snout. All of his skin fell to the floor, he shook himself clean. He had become a large Wolf-man hybrid. His eyes had lost all humanity, but with his last stretch of what was left of the man before. He pressed the button turning off the feed. Blake didn't know what to expect from the last video. Her lover was gone. He had moved on to another women. He had changed to a monster. But she felt that she needed to see the last video. For closure. She clicked the last video. It flicked on and a cleanly shaved Marcus sat in front of the camera.

"This is probably going to be the last one I do because I'm pretty sure that you haven't seen these yet. Anyway good news I'm back." He gestured to himself with his hands "Took a couple thousand watts of electricity but Derek and I are back. I'm gonna start with the bad news this time." He took a deep breath she could tell what he was going to say was hard for him to do.

"Yang… We still haven't found Yang. Its been five years and Ruby still has us looking for her. She doesn't' know this but we think she's dead, I mean when we found Velvet she was injured really badly and… I don't want to think about that anymore. When we raided a Blackstone weapons shipment Dove and Cardin took a few bullets, Dove asked us not to waste medical supplies on him and ordered to save Cardin. He died... but we managed to save Cardin. Its hard thinking back to how he used to bully me in school and now, he commit the most selfless act a person can. The good news, Derek and I were found howling at the moon when we were captured and 'brought' back. Their just rigging Derek as we speak, It took its toll on our generators though. I found out today that I have a daughter. Her name is Ellie. She has my eyes with a mix of my hair and Weiss'. Weiss. Where to start here. I love her, I don't want to feel guilty about moving on but I just can't get you out of my head. For every day that I'm with her I wish I was spending minutes with you. Your love seared my skin and kept alive. But hers chills my bones and makes me old." He laughed at the sentiment "The perks of getting older. There's something I wanted to tell you. The night we graduated I wanted to give you something" He fumbled around in his pockets. He paused. The video stopped and the screen began to shut down, but before the power went off she caught a glimpse at when the video had been made. Blake slammed the laptop shut. Tears streamed down her face. The video had been created hours ago.

She ran.

And she kept running.

Twenty five years and she had never forgotten

Twenty five years of mourning, thinking he was dead, only to find him with another women

She ran from the ruins of Beacon its battered remains still stood strong, a Beacon.

**But not of hope. Of Grim.**


End file.
